World Mission Sunday

is a day set aside for Catholics worldwide to recommit themselves to the Church's missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice. It gathers support for the pastoral and evangelizing programs and needs of more than 1,150 mission dioceses in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and remote regions of Latin America. The funds gathered on World Mission Sunday are distributed in the Pope’s name by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

Before he died earlier this year, the great Pope John Paul II wrote a message for World Mission Sunday (posted in 2 parts here and here), concluding the Year of the Eucharist with the theme "Bread Broken for the Life of the World."